Feds: We didn't track James Rosen's parents' calls

5/22/13 6:27 PM EDT

The Justice Department is denying that it tracked the phone calls of Fox News reporter James Rosen's parents as part of an investigation into how Rosen got classified information about North Korean nuclear test plans.

"We did not wiretap the phones of any reporter or news organization. Nor did we monitor or track the phone calls of any reporter’s parents. No records were obtained from the computer servers of any news organization," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. "We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when grand jury subpoenas are issued for phone records of media organizations, and strive to strike the proper balance between the public's interest in the free flow of information and the public's interest in the protection of national security and the effective enforcement of our criminal laws."

The New Yorker noted Tuesday that a publicly-filed court document in the prosecution of Rosen's alleged source, State Department contractor Stephen Kim, included area codes and exchanges for phone records gathered in the investigation. At least six of the numbers appear to be Fox News office lines.

"James Rosen—I emailed with him tonight and he told me that even his parents home phone records in Staten Island were taken," Fox legal commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle said on "The O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night. "Talk about overreaching."

One number in the court filing has a 718 area code and 720 exchange, which is located in Staten Island. The last four digits are redacted in the public version of the document.

Separately, the chief federal judge at U.S. District Court in Washington issued an unusual apology Wednesday for errors that obscured some of the legal filings relating to a search of Rosen's email and other email searches related to the prosecution of Kim, who was indicted in 2010 for disclosing national security information and making false statements to investigators.

"The Court apologizes to the public and the media for the administrative errors made by the Court's staff in these matters," Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in an order (posted here). He said many of the documents were unsealed more than a year ago, but not promptly placed in the court's online dockets.

Lamberth said the court would set up a page on its website where the public and press can directly access unsealed search and arrest warrants. He also said "a review of the duty performance" of court staff involved in the docketing failures is being undertaken.